Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1887-12-25
CHAPTER LII.
ToMAcIro's YOUTH.

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CHAPTER LII.
ToMAcIro's YOUTH.
The newborn heir to the Bailey
estate with its broad acres, herds OF
cattle, bands Of horses and flocks Of
sheep, grew up at pace only known
in the charming climate Of South Cali
fornia. He drank in the pure air
from the limitless expanse of the
Pacific seas and from the pine clad
heights OF the big mountains. He
basked in the eternal sunshine, rolled
about in the perennial flowers, ate
luscious fruits all days in the year,
and meyer knew what pain, a cold,
a day OF Illness WAS.
TomacitO grew up as other child
rem Of his time did in Los Angeles.
There was at first little remarkable
about the youngster, excepting that
the Siiiora Carmen kept a closer eye
on him than she had ever kept on
any OF the girls, or than is usually be-
slowed on child who happens TO be
the seventh or eighth in point Of age
in large family. Tomacito was
hardly ever away from his mother.
Even when still another addition
came to the family--a daughter, OF
course-evcn then the heir was not
let get his .'nose out OF joint" for i
moment.
Few thought all this strange; for
was he not the heir? And was it not
quite natural that Carmen should
prize highly what she had 80 ardently
desired and so long waited for?
Moreover, was not Don Tomas 4
young man again since the boy had
come?
at is all perfectly natural" the
neighbors said, that she should wish
to have him near her.
And yet the mysterious manner Of
the old nurse who played so important
and SO tyrannous part at the ranch
house for month after the heirs
arrival sometimes caused gossip
around the place.
Old Dolores would say SWELL, it is
not only that the child is the heir,
but he is such a strange boy In
deed, he, too, ought to have been a
girl
When the old crone made such re-
marks in the hearing OF Carmen, she
would cast upon the speaker 4 look OF
mingled entreaty and threat. This
was construed to mean depreciation
of the sentiment that the Bailey
family should not have had an
heir. But Dolores never Jared the
worse for all this. Since Tomacito
had been born, the old woman had
been the special care OF the happy
mother, and Carmen saw that she did
want for anything. This was all laid
to the account of that happiness
which Dolores was Il chief actor i'll
bringing to the Bailey household.
So for all that the woman said
Tomacito was strange boy, and
that he, too, should have been girl,
the child grew to be a fine shapely
youth, and the youth grew to be
almost young man. The older he
grew the more frequently and emf
phatically Dolores was in her express
sion of the view that he was strange
boy, and that perhaps it would have
been better had he been girl.
Tomacito could ride as well and as
far as any youth Of his age. He was
as brave and as skillful in handling
bronco or throwing the ridtc over the
big horns OF wild steer. Flo could
shoot as we'll as any of his COM
panions, and was as quick to rush
into danger as the rest OF them. Yet
SO quiet, so peaceable was his dispo-
sition that he always acted rs peace
maker in any dispute. He hated to
see fight or to hear loud noise. Yet
when anything dear to him was in
danger, he would stand between it
and that danger with the courage oil a
lion, and protect his trust to the
very point of death.
In all the county there was no such
handsome boy as our hero. Smaller
a little than most others of his age and
sex, his limbs were as perfectly
turned as II chiseled from marble by
a Greek sculptor. His features, too,
were OF that regular, delicate mould,
which made some of his companions
little jealous OF the favor he had in
the eyes of the gu'i's say:
"Old Dolores is right about you
Tomaso, you ought to have been a
girl. You are too pretty by half to be
q boy. You are only u Miss Nancy,
too, with your modesty and fuss about
little things!
In all these troubles Tomaso had
one earnest champion. That was his
big, sturdy cousin, Chico James, the
son OF the other ship wrecked mariner
who had married a cousin of Car
mems. Chico always came to the
rescue OF Tomaso, or Tomaciguito, rs
he called his favorite, not content with
one endearing termination to the
name, and therefore putting on two.
Chico was the acknowledged cham
pion OF all the boys in the neighbor-
hood, and therefore when he took up